SWINDON people looked to the skies this week in 1979.

Not too long after the blurb for Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind assured us we weren’t alone, plenty of people in Moredon were believers.

We reported: “Several Swindon families were held spellbound as UFOs hovered over them - in two separate incidents.

“In the first sighting a whole street was thrown into panic by mysterious lights in the sky.

“Mr Roy Randall, 31, of Knowsley Road, was visiting his children in Tovey Road, Moredon, when he spotted strange orange lights.”

Mr Randall told us: “I was sitting in the house and the kids came in and told me they had seen some lights. I rushed out, but by the time I got outside they were just going away over the houses by the church.

“I took no notice, but I was still standing outside the door when I saw two more. It was like looking at two spotlights on a car. They were like huge yellow lights.

“I just panicked when I saw them. I was rushing up the street, banging on doors, getting people out to see them.

“It was the first time I’ve seen anything like it.”

Neighbours Joyce and Harry Greenaway confirmed the sighting, as did 13-year-old friends Maria Hunt and Debbie Quinn, who also reported seeing similar lights a week earlier.

There was local speculation that the lights were on either extraterrestrial craft or secret military ones. However, a telephone caller to our offices insisted the phenomena were merely lights attached to balloons.

Unlike our witnesses, however, the caller declined to give his name or any proof of a hoax.

A less mysterious machine was also in the news, and remains a familiar sight to this day, especially in Royal Wootton Bassett.

We wrote: “Chris and Audrey Wannell, of Noremarsh Road, Wootton Bassett, and their 1943 Austin fire engine will take part in this year’s London to Brighton commercial vehicle run.

“Their children, Heather, nine, and Martin, seven, will go too.

“All the family have helped rebuild the old Somerset Fire Brigade stalwart.”

Chris, a retired firefighter who worked for Unigate, had bought the machine for £200 in 1975. It was languishing in a scrapyard at the time.

He said: “It was an utter disaster. Nothing worked.

“The engine was defective, the woodwork was rotten and a lot of parts were missing .”

The restoration took a total of 1,000 hours, he added.

The couple each went on to serve as mayors of the town, and the fire engine has appeared at countless community events, charity functions and vintage rallies.

Smaller – much smaller – vehicles were the subject of another story.

One of our feature writers visited the splendidly-named Swindon Electric Throttle Benders Club, whose passion was radio-controlled cars.

Although radio-controlled aircraft were well-established at the time, their terrestrial counterparts were unusual enough to warrant an explanation.

“Using a radio transmitter,” we said, “club members control the speed and steering of their cars as they tear round testing circuits.”

It wasn’t a cheap hobby, with a car and controller likely to cost about £100 in an era when such a sum was a respectable weekly wage. In 2015 far more advanced electric radio-controlled cars can be had for about £40.

We added: “The Throttle Benders use the hall at Moredon Community Centre during the winter months.

“They mark out a rough circuit using air-filled fire hoses and car tyres.

“They race all evening with one-twelfth scale electric-engined cars in fiercely competitive heats.

“It’s all down to the skills of their frantically-twiddling thumbs, which operate the radio transmitters’ two levers as their cars speed around the circuit and complete as many laps as possible.

“Members of the Throttle Benders range from 14-year-olds upwards and come from as far afield as Stroud and Devizes.

“Annual subscription is 70p, and members pay 50p a meeting.”

We wonder whether any members of the club who remain are still involved with the hobby.

Easter had fallen the previous weekend, but instead of running stories about cute Easter chicks we had one about a cute Easter hawk which visited Highworth.

Fred Honeyman was cleaning the windows of a neighbour, Monica Bidewell, when he spotted the bird on her windowsill. Taking advantage of the open window, it hopped inside for a rest.

Monica said: “The poor thing was tired to death. It was frightened out of its wits too – especially when the cat came into the bedroom.”

So exhausted was the bird, whose leather leg band suggested it was an escapee from a falconer, that it readily allowed itself to be picked up and handed to RSPCA officer Jeremy Goomershall.

Our other animal rescue story that week was rather more spectacular.

Pregnant champion shire horse New Era Nonsense, who lived at Ballards Ash Farm in Wootton Bassett, stumbled into a brimming sludge pit and became firmly stuck.

Volunteer helpers, two Swindon fire crews and finally some heavy lifting gear from the Vasterne Timber Company extracted her after three hours.

Just a few hours later, she became the mother of a healthy daughter, and we photographed the two with farmer Gordon Hunt.